Task force on prostate cancer prevention is not informed [Letter]

Thanks to Judy Berman for her wonderful support of her husband, and advice to Howard County men and women, in "My personal prostate cancer month." I am personally very close in experience to her husband. All I can conclude is that without the PSA test I would have gone on in peaceful ignorance only to die painfully at a relatively early age from prostate cancer. Mrs. Berman, bless her heart, however only tangentially addresses the problem brought on by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF.) My urologist informs me that the USPSTF has made their recommendation without the informed consent of a single urologist. That recommendation, specifically, is: "The USPSTF concludes that there is moderate certainty that the benefits of PSA-based screening for prostate cancer do not outweigh the harms." This would have been small consolation for Mr. Berman or myself. Consider the situation of best-selling author Vince Flynn who died of prostate cancer at age 47. So my advice to those reading this is to aggressively ignore the USPSTF with respect to prostate cancer.

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